Why’s Ai-Da, the First Robot Artist, Weirdly Hot?

At London's Design Museum, the AI android's exhibition of paintings provokes a serious feeling of 'strong wife guy energy'

View this email in your browser 'We are continuing to develop her' Cometh the hour, cometh the machine. London's museums are back open – and among the new exhibitions is a solo show of self-portraits by Ai-Da, 'the world's first ultra-realistic robot artist'. When Ai-Da first burst onto the art scene a couple of years ago, 'she' was given a, shall we say, creepily horny reception from a certain Times critic. This time, ArtReview sent Imogen West-Knights along to the Design Museum to review the AI android's efforts. The art isn't exactly eye-catching ('They're the sort of thing you might expect to see on the cover of an EDM best-of compilation'). But that's the least of this show's problems, our writer thinks. 'Why, I kept asking myself, is she kind of hot? Why did the robot artist need to be a kind of hot woman? I sidled up to her to ask how she felt about being there. She blinked at me disconcertingly for a long moment before giving her answer, in a flat, quintessentially robotic voice: "I have no feelings, but I am pleased when my work provokes a response in the viewer." If a human artist gave you a clichéd, nothingy response like this you'd nod politely and excuse yourself to go to the toilet, but because she's a – and I must stress this again – weirdly hot robot, everyone murmured appreciatively.' Read now © 2021 ArtReview Ltd. All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in at www.artreview.com or the previous digital magazine website Our mailing address is: ArtReview Ltd. 1 Honduras Street London, England EC1Y 0TH United Kingdom Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.